More classified documents stolen by Donald Trump have been uncovered
It seemed just a matter of time before we learned that Donald Trump stole even more classified documents than the ones seized from his Mar-a-Lago home, and sure enough, that’s now happened. According to the Washington Post, Trump’s own lawyers have now turned over multiple classified documents that Trump had been keeping in a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida.
This sounds completely surreal, and yet none of it’s surprising. The DOJ might never have found out about this storage unit on its own. That’s why it’s so vital that the DOJ took the time to corner Trump’s lawyers and get them on the hook for obstruction. Now they’re coughing up classified documents that Trump stole, just to try to save themselves from going down with Trump.
Meanwhile Trump’s lawyers are also claiming they’ve had an outside team search Trump Tower and Bedminster but didn’t find any classified documents there. This news is causing plenty of consternation among observers who are demanding to know why the DOJ doesn’t just search those properties itself.
What everyone is missing is that the DOJ appears to be using this as an opportunity to let Trump’s lawyers once again hang themselves. Now that they’ve formally asserted that there are no classified documents at Trump’s northern properties, all the DOJ has to do is send in the FBI to search those properties and find classified documents, and Trump’s lawyers will be right back on the hook for obstruction. It’s the exact same strategy the DOJ used before searching Mar-a-Lago, so why wouldn’t the DOJ be using that strategy once again?
In any case, legally speaking, it’s really bad news for Donald Trump that he stole classified documents and hid them in a storage facility. That goes to intent. It’s one thing to have classified documents sitting in plain sight on your desk in your home office; you can try to make the reasonable doubt argument that you didn’t know you weren’t supposed to be in possession of them. It’s another thing to have hidden them in a warehouse. That means you were trying to keep the Feds from ever finding them.
